There are many pet toys which incorporate a pet treat in the toy and require the pet animal to manipulate the toy to gain access to the treat. However, such toys are, in reality, passive devices providing essentially no exercise to the pet animal in association with the removal of the treat from the toy. A pet toy which incorporates a pet treat in a passive device will retain the treat in an accessible location and hold the treat in such manner to enable the pet to access and remove the treat from the toy without requiring the pet animal to destroy the toy to remove the treat. However, such passive pet toy devices do not motivate the pet to perform exercise as an integral part of providing access to a treat. Any exercise performed by a pet animal in a passive device is so minimal that it is not considered physical exercise for purposes of this application.
The pet toy of the present invention is designed as a tossing device adapted to be thrown into the air so that the pet animal is required to chase after the toy and perform physical exercise before gaining access to the treat. Upon accessing the treat, the pet animal is also motivated to retrieve the toy and bring it back to the owner or animal handler so that the toy can again be thrown into the air after a new treat is placed into the toy and the process repeated.
The pet toy of the present invention comprises a body having a pet treat dispenser composed of a flexible material adapted to removably grip a treat in such manner that the treat is easily removed from the treat dispenser by a pet animal without destroying the toy and permits a new treat to be reinserted into the treat dispenser by the owner or pet handler of the pet toy. More particularly, the body of the pet toy should possess a geometry which facilitates hurling the pet toy into the air with the treat holder located within the body at or substantially at its center of gravity. The body of the pet toy may have any geometrical configuration which will facilitate hurling the pet toy into the air selected from the group consisting of an annular ring or diskette shape geometry, a boomerang shape geometry which may represent a quadrant of a circle and a geometry which includes a central body having a plurality of arms of preferably three or four which extend from the body and are preferably radially arranged. The body of the pet toy exclusive of the treat holder should be composed of relatively light weight fabric material, preferably of nylon, in any desired geometrical configuration to facilitate hurling the toy into the air.
The pet treat dispenser or holder should be located at or substantially at the center of gravity of the pet toy, viz., at a central or near central location approximating the center of gravity independent of the geometrical configuration of the pet toy. The treat dispenser should be composed of flexible plastic or a rubberized material having one or more sheet-like layers of flexible but relatively stiff plastic or rubber attached to each other preferably adjacent to the perimeter of each sheet. The sheet-like layers should be divided into sections forming divided panels of rubber or flexible plastic so that the divided panel sections extend from the perimeter of the sheets of plastic or rubber material. The preferred geometry of the treat holder may be circular. In this case the divided panels may be divided into quadrants of four panels although a plurality of panels of any number is acceptable. The sheet-like layers are preferably attached to one another only around a border area bounded by the perimeter of the sheets. This results in the divided panels forming independent flaps which readily enable a treat to be gripped between the flaps and to be easily removed therefrom by a pet animal. The sheets should be attached to one another by overlapping them at their perimeter with fabric or section of fabric extending from the body of the pet toy. The fabric or section of fabric extending from the body of the pet toy should be placed between the sheets before the sheets are attached. The attachment may be accomplished by sewing the edges of the sheets along the perimeter to the fabric or section of fabric of the pet toy. This arrangement interconnects the pet treat dispenser to the body of the pet toy and keeps the sheets separated from one another so that the divided sections are separated enabling the flaps to better grip a treat and to hold onto it until a pet animal tries to remove it from the treat dispenser.
The preferred configurations for the body of the pet toy of the present invention is exemplified by a plurality of styles as shown in the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a preferred pet treat dispenser or holder 10 for the pet toy of the present invention with the dispenser 10 preferably in a circular geometry . However, a circular geometry is not essential.
The pet treat dispenser 10 is composed of a flexible material of relatively stiff plastic or rubber formed into a thin disc like member 11 having an annular border 12 circumscribing the perimeter of the holder 10 and four flaps 13, 14, 15, and 16 which may be formed by punching out two narrow intersecting strips of material from the holder 10 to form rectangular openings 17 and 18 which extend cross-wise from the border 12 and intersect one another at a central position 20 in the dispenser 10. The four flaps 13, 14, 15, and 16 form pie sections with the opening 20 at a central location in the holder 10. The opening 20 defines an area in which a treat may be removably placed. The four flaps 13, 14, 15 and 16 are deflected by the placement of a treat which secures the treat in this position until removed therefrom. A small area from each of the four flaps 13, 14, 15, and 16 surrounding the intersecting opening 20 may be removed from each flap to form a central region 21 about the opening 20 in which the flaps are thinner so as to provide greater flexibility in the movement of the flaps 13, 14, 15 and 16 at the central region 21 for the ingress and egress of a treat . Although the pet treat dispenser 10 may be formed using only a single thin disc like member 11 having an annular border 12 it is preferred to construct the dispenser 10 using two identical disk like members 11 assembled in an overlapping relationship to one another with the border 12 of each of the two disk like members 11 arranged in a sandwich fastened on opposite sides to one or two section(s) of fabric 27 extending from the pet toy as shown in the exploded view in FIG. 3. In such case the treat is place in the opening 20 of the dispenser 10 bridging both of the two overlapping disk like members enhancing the gripping ability of the pet treat holder 10 for holding the treat.
FIGS. 2-5 illustrate a preferred embodiment of a pet toy 22 of the present invention in which a pet treat dispenser 10 is affixed to a fabric section 27 of the pet toy 22 at a central location preferably at or close to its center of gravity. In this embodiment of the invention the pet toy 22 comprises an outer circular ring 23 formed from a plurality of strips of fabric 26, preferably of woven nylon, which are intertwined as shown in FIG. 5 into a plaited spiral geometry having a hollow core 19 as shown in FIG. 4. An exploded view of the pet toy 22 is shown in FIG. 3. Preferably two identical fabric sections 27 each preferably of nylon are stitched from opposite sides to a border 12 of each of two disk like members 11 in a sandwich arrangement for forming the pet treat dispenser 10. Each fabric section 27 has a quadratic shape with a central opening 28 and four identical extended arms 29. Separate pieces of nylon fabric 30 are looped over the outer circular ring 23 forming hoops 31 which are loosely coupled around the ring 24 and then fastened together to the outer end of each of the extended arms 29 of the fabric section 27. An edge portion of fabric 32 may be fastened by sewing to the periphery of the fabric section 27 between the extended arms 29.
A second embodiment of the pet toy 22 of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 with the body 32 of the pet toy 22 in the configuration of a boomerang. In this embodiment a pet treat dispenser 10 is attached to the body 32 in a central location approximately representing the center of gravity of the pet toy 22. The dispenser 10 is assembled from two disk like members 11 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 with each formed as described above in connection with FIG. 1 from a flexible material of relatively stiff plastic or rubber and stitched around the border 12 to two sections of fabric 33 with each section of fabric 33 extending from an opposite side of the body 32 of the pet toy 22. The assembly of the pet treat dispenser 10 is the same as described in connection with the first embodiment as shown in the exploded view of FIG. 3. The body 32 of the pet toy 22 may be formed from two pieces of fabric representing two opposite sides of the body 32 with each piece of fabric on each opposite side having an extended section of fabric 33 stitched together between the disk members 11 around each border 12 thereof to form the pet treat dispenser 10. The two pieces of fabric forming the body 32 may also be stitched in an overlapping relationship with a cotton filling placed therein before stitching them together. An edge portion of fabric 34 overlies the body 32 and is stitched to the section 33 of the body 32 along the periphery at one end of the pet toy 22.
Referring now to FIGS. 8-10 illustrating another embodiment of the pet toy 22 having three arm like sections 41, 42 and 43 of fabric which radially extend from a pet treat dispenser 10 of FIG. 1 located in the center of the pet toy 22. The pet treat holder 10 is once again assembled from two disk like members 11 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 of a flexible material of relatively stiff plastic or rubber. The three arm like sections 41, 42 and 43 have a common design as shown in FIG. 10 with each arm having two opposite sides of fabric 44 with the end portion 46 of each opposite side attached to the pet treat dispenser 10 by stitching the end portion 46 on each opposite side of each arm 41 , 42 and 43 between two disk members 11 around each border 12 thereof as shown in FIG. 1 for forming a single pet treat dispenser 10 at the center of the pet toy in the same manner as explained above for the first embodiment in connection with FIG. 3. The two opposite sides of fabric 44 of each arm 41, 42 and 43 may be stitched together around its periphery after placing a cotton filling therein. An edge material 45 may be stitched to the periphery of the fabric 44 around the border of each of the three arms 41, 42 and 43 to form the perimeter of the pet toy.
A further embodiment of the pet toy of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 12-14 and is constructed in a manner similar to the embodiment of FIG. 9 except that the pet toy in this embodiment has four arm like sections 51, 52, 53 and 54 of fabric which radially extend from the pet treat dispenser 10 located in the center of the pet toy 22. The pet treat dispenser 10 is assembled in the pet toy 22 shown in FIG. 12 in the same manner as described above in connection with FIG. 9.